Difficulty: Intermediate | Prerequisites: Phonetics and phonology notes (Ch. 2-3)
Morphology is the study of word structure: how meaningful units (morphemes) combine to form words. Semantics is the study of meaning: what words and sentences mean, and how meanings relate to one another. Together they sit between the sound system (phonetics/phonology) and sentence structure (syntax). Morphology tells you how "unhappiness" is built from three meaningful pieces. Semantics tells you what "unhappiness" means and how that meaning relates to "happiness," "sadness" and "joy."
Morphology breaks words into their smallest meaningful parts (morphemes) and describes how those parts combine through inflection, derivation and compounding. Semantics analyses meaning at the word and sentence level, covering sense vs reference, semantic relations (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy) and compositional tools like componential analysis and thematic roles.
Morpheme
The smallest unit of language that carries meaning or grammatical function. Think of it as the atom of meaning. "Unbreakable" has three morphemes: un- + break + -able.
Free morpheme
A morpheme that can stand alone as a word (e.g. "book," "run," "happy").
Bound morpheme
A morpheme that must attach to another morpheme (e.g. un-, -ness, -ed, -s). It cannot be a word on its own.
Affix
A bound morpheme attached to a root or stem. Types include prefix (un-), suffix (-ness), infix (inserted inside a word, rare in English) and circumfix (attaches around a word).
Root
The core morpheme of a word that carries its primary lexical meaning. In "unhappiness," the root is "happy."
Stem
The part of a word to which an affix is added. The stem of "unhappiness" when adding "-ness" is "unhappy."
Derivational morpheme
A bound morpheme that creates a new word or changes the word class (e.g. "happy" → "unhappy," "happy" → "happiness"). Derivation often changes the part of speech.
Inflectional morpheme
A bound morpheme that adds grammatical information without changing the word class or creating a new word. English has eight inflectional morphemes: -s (plural), -'s (possessive), -s (3rd person singular), -ed (past tense), -ing (progressive), -en/-ed (past participle), -er (comparative), -est (superlative).
Allomorph
A variant form of a morpheme. The English plural morpheme has three allomorphs: /s/ after voiceless sounds, /z/ after voiced sounds, /ɪz/ after sibilants. In simple terms, an allomorph is to a morpheme what an allophone is to a phoneme.
Compound
A word formed by combining two or more free morphemes (e.g. "blackboard," "sunflower").
Sense
The dictionary-like meaning of a linguistic expression, independent of context. The properties or concept a word evokes.
Reference
The relationship between a linguistic expression and the thing in the world it picks out. "The morning star" and "the evening star" have different senses but the same reference (Venus).
Synonymy
A semantic relation where two words have the same or very similar meanings (e.g. "big" and "large").
Antonymy
A semantic relation where two words have opposite meanings. Types: gradable (big/small), complementary (alive/dead), relational (buy/sell).
Hyponymy
A semantic relation where the meaning of one word is included within another. "Rose" is a hyponym of "flower"; "flower" is the superordinate (hypernym).
Componential analysis
A method of breaking down word meaning into smaller semantic components or features (e.g. "man" = [+human, +adult, +male]).
Thematic role (theta role)
The semantic role a noun phrase plays in relation to a verb. Common roles: agent (doer), patient/theme (entity affected), experiencer, instrument, goal, source, location.
Morphemes divide into two broad categories:
Free morphemes: can stand alone. Further split into:
Lexical (content) morphemes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs (open class, new ones can be added)
Functional (grammatical) morphemes: prepositions, conjunctions, articles, pronouns (closed class, relatively fixed)
Bound morphemes: must attach to something else. Further split into:
Derivational: change meaning or word class
Inflectional: add grammatical information without changing word class
This is one of the most tested distinctions in morphology.
Derivational morphemes can change the part of speech ("teach" [verb] → "teacher" [noun]) and often change meaning substantially. They are not required by grammar. Their application is often unpredictable ("readable" but not *"hearable" in standard usage). They occur closer to the root than inflectional morphemes.
Inflectional morphemes never change the part of speech. They are required by grammar (subject-verb agreement, tense marking). English has exactly eight: -s (plural), -'s (possessive), -s (3rd person singular present), -ed (past tense), -ing (present participle), -en/-ed (past participle), -er (comparative), -est (superlative).
Order rule: derivation comes before inflection. "Teach" → "teach-er" (derivation) → "teach-er-s" (inflection). You will never find an inflectional morpheme closer to the root than a derivational one.
Compounding: combining two or more free morphemes ("bookshelf," "greenhouse")
Blending: merging parts of two words ("smog" from smoke + fog, "brunch" from breakfast + lunch)
Clipping: shortening a word ("advertisement" → "ad," "laboratory" → "lab")
Back-formation: removing a supposed affix to create a new word ("editor" → "edit," "television" → "televise")
Conversion (zero derivation): changing the word class without any affix ("to Google," "a run")
Acronym: forming a word from initial letters ("NATO," "laser")
Borrowing: adopting words from other languages ("piano" from Italian, "tsunami" from Japanese)
Coinage: inventing entirely new words ("Xerox," "Aspirin")
Eponym: a word derived from a person's name ("sandwich," "boycott")
To analyse a word morphologically, work outward from the root:
Identify the root (the core meaning-bearing morpheme)
Identify each affix and whether it is derivational or inflectional
Show the hierarchical structure (which affix attaches first)
Example: "unkindnesses"
Root: "kind" (adjective)
un- (derivational prefix, creates "unkind," still adjective but reversed meaning)
-ness (derivational suffix, creates "unkindness," noun)
-es (inflectional suffix, plural)
Structure: [[un- [kind]] -ness] -es
Semantics studies linguistic meaning at the word and sentence level. The field distinguishes several layers:
Lexical semantics: meaning of individual words
Sentential semantics: meaning derived from combining words according to grammatical rules
Utterance meaning (overlaps with pragmatics): meaning in context, including speaker intention
Sense is the conceptual meaning of an expression, its place in a network of other meanings. You can describe the sense of "dog" without pointing at any particular dog.
Reference is the relationship between an expression and the entity it picks out in the world. "My dog" refers to a specific animal.
Frege's classic example: "the morning star" and "the evening star" have different senses (one evokes dawn, the other dusk) but the same reference (both pick out Venus).
Synonymy: similar meaning ("big" / "large"). True, total synonymy is rare; most synonyms differ in register, connotation or collocational range.
Antonymy: opposite meaning.
Gradable antonyms: opposites on a scale, with degrees in between ("hot" / "cold")
Complementary antonyms: binary opposition, no middle ground ("alive" / "dead")
Relational (converse) antonyms: one implies the other from a different viewpoint ("buy" / "sell," "parent" / "child")
Hyponymy: an "is a kind of" relation. "Dog" is a hyponym of "animal"; "animal" is the hypernym (superordinate). Co-hyponyms share the same hypernym ("dog," "cat," "horse" are all hyponyms of "animal").
Homonymy: same form, unrelated meanings ("bank" as financial institution vs "bank" as river edge).
Polysemy: same form, related meanings ("head" of a person, "head" of a department, "head" of a nail). The line between polysemy and homonymy can be blurry.
Metonymy: using one entity to refer to a related entity ("the White House" for the US presidency).
A technique for decomposing word meaning into binary semantic features:
"man" = [+human, +adult, +male]
"woman" = [+human, +adult, -male]
"boy" = [+human, -adult, +male]
"girl" = [+human, -adult, -male]
This method works well for sets of closely related words but has limitations. Abstract or culturally loaded words ("freedom," "justice") resist neat binary decomposition.
Thematic roles (also called theta roles) describe the semantic relationship between a verb and its noun phrases:
Agent: the entity that intentionally performs the action ("John kicked the ball")
Patient/Theme: the entity affected by or undergoing the action ("John kicked the ball")
Experiencer: the entity that perceives or experiences a state ("Mary heard the noise")
Instrument: the means by which an action is carried out ("He cut the bread with a knife")
Goal: the entity toward which something moves ("She sent the letter to London")
Source: the entity from which something moves ("He drove from Paris")
Location: where something takes place ("They met in the park")
At the sentence level, semantics examines:
Entailment: sentence A entails sentence B if whenever A is true, B must also be true. "John killed the spider" entails "the spider is dead."
Presupposition: background assumptions that must be true for a sentence to be meaningful. "John stopped smoking" presupposes that John used to smoke.
Contradiction: two propositions that cannot both be true simultaneously.
"A word always equals one morpheme." Many words contain multiple morphemes. "Unbreakable" has three (un- + break + -able). Meanwhile, some morphemes span more than one syllable ("elephant" is a single morpheme despite three syllables).
"Derivation and inflection are the same thing because both use affixes." They serve entirely different functions. Derivation creates new words or changes word class; inflection adjusts a word grammatically without changing its identity. The order matters too: derivation is always closer to the root.
"Synonyms are interchangeable." Almost never completely. "Big" and "large" overlap but differ in collocation ("big sister" is idiomatic; "large sister" is odd). Exams often test awareness of this.
"Homonymy and polysemy are the same." They look alike on the surface (same form, different meanings), but homonymy involves unrelated meanings (accidental overlap), while polysemy involves historically related meanings that branched from a common source.
⚠️ Be able to break any given English word into its constituent morphemes, labelling each as free/bound and derivational/inflectional. This is a standard exam task.
⚠️ Know all eight English inflectional morphemes by heart. Exams frequently ask students to list them or identify them in a passage.
⚠️ The derivation-before-inflection rule is commonly tested. Expect a question asking you to show the morphological structure of a complex word.
⚠️ Be able to identify word formation processes (compounding, blending, clipping, back-formation, conversion). Exams often give examples and ask you to name the process.
⚠️ Sense vs reference is a favourite exam question. Know Frege's "morning star / evening star" example cold.
⚠️ Be ready to perform componential analysis on a set of related words and identify the distinguishing features.
⚠️ Identify thematic roles in a given sentence. Expect a question like "identify the agent, patient and instrument in this sentence."
True or False: The word "dogs" contains two morphemes. (True: "dog" + "-s.")
Fill in the blank: English has exactly ________ inflectional morphemes. (eight)
True or False: Derivational morphemes always change the word class. (False. "un-" + "happy" = "unhappy," still an adjective.)
Fill in the blank: When two expressions have different senses but the same reference, the classic example is ________ and ________. ("the morning star" and "the evening star")
True or False: "Rose" is a hypernym of "flower." (False. "Rose" is a hyponym of "flower"; "flower" is the hypernym.)
Q: Break the word "internationalisations" into its morphemes and label each.
A: inter- (derivational prefix) + nation (root, free) + -al (derivational suffix, noun → adjective) + -ise (derivational suffix, adjective → verb) + -ation (derivational suffix, verb → noun) + -s (inflectional suffix, plural).
Q: List all eight English inflectional morphemes with an example of each.
A: -s plural ("cats"), -'s possessive ("John's"), -s 3rd person singular ("runs"), -ed past tense ("walked"), -ing progressive ("running"), -en/-ed past participle ("broken/walked"), -er comparative ("taller"), -est superlative ("tallest").
Q: What word formation process produced "brunch"?
A: Blending (breakfast + lunch).
Q: Explain the difference between homonymy and polysemy, giving an example of each.
A: Homonymy: same form, unrelated meanings ("bank" as financial institution vs "bank" as river edge; historically different words that happen to sound the same). Polysemy: same form, related meanings that diverged from a common source ("head" of a person, "head" of a department, "head" of a nail; all related to the idea of "the top or leading part").
Q: In the sentence "The child opened the door with a key," identify the thematic roles of each noun phrase.
A: "The child" = agent, "the door" = patient/theme, "a key" = instrument.
Q: Perform componential analysis on the words "stallion," "mare," "colt" and "filly."
A: stallion = [+equine, +adult, +male]. mare = [+equine, +adult, -male]. colt = [+equine, -adult, +male]. filly = [+equine, -adult, -male].
Morphology connects backward to phonology (allomorphs are phonologically conditioned: the plural "-s" surfaces as /s/, /z/ or /ɪz/ depending on the final phoneme of the stem) and forward to syntax (word class, determined by morphological processes, governs where a word can appear in a sentence). Semantics bridges into pragmatics: sense and reference operate at the semantic level, but what a speaker actually means in context (implicature, speech acts) is pragmatics.
Morphology, semantics, morpheme, free morpheme, bound morpheme, root, stem, affix, prefix, suffix, infix, derivation, derivational morpheme, inflection, inflectional morpheme, allomorph, compound, compounding, blending, clipping, back-formation, conversion, zero derivation, acronym, borrowing, coinage, eponym, word formation, sense, reference, Frege, synonymy, antonymy, gradable antonyms, complementary antonyms, relational antonyms, hyponymy, hypernym, superordinate, homonymy, polysemy, metonymy, componential analysis, semantic features, thematic roles, theta roles, agent, patient, theme, experiencer, instrument, goal, source, location, entailment, presupposition, lexical semantics, English word structure, meaning in linguistics